Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Back in the days when the Communist world was collapsing, the recently deceased Msgr. William Smith of New York, summed the situation in what he liked to call Van Courtland Park logic: “All the Reds are now green.” And sure enough, environmental excuses for grabbing more and more power were upon us, with global warming being its latest manifestation.

I use the word excuse because salesman are taught to always tell the difference between a reason and an excuse. There are reasons for not to buying something and there are excuses. Most green-liberal argumentation is based on excuses for curtailing various personal freedoms. Excuses, like the current ones for cap-and-trade rules, which claim they will “prevent greenhouse gases” and stop so-called global warming, are annoying in the extreme because an excuse can’t be analyzed. Fundamentally it is just a smokescreen to mask an act of the will. You certainly can’t realistically argue against it because excuses are devoid of real meaning.

If you don’t know the difference between reasons and excuses then you can easily misread one aspect of Christ’s critique of those who said they could not follow him because they had to bury the dead (certainly a virtuous act). “Let the dead bury the dead,” He said. In youth this might sound harsh, but with age the excuse game and the countervailing call to responsibility become clearer through experience. In many cases the virtue being alluded to is a smokescreen, “looping the loop” as the salesman would say. It is the pretty girl to avert gaze from the magician’s slight-of-hand and disappearing act from responsibility.

That is why the global warming argument, like the overpopulation argument before it, is so tiresome to opponents. As facts eventually break through the media blackout, showing up the absurdities of these positions, the global greens simply shed their snake skin, and present new excuses which will, with no compunction, be as easily shed later.

Time wasting and intellectually dishonest in the extreme, the green-liberal’s excuses aim at one prize: to grab the power needed to manage the world based on the principles of practical materialism. This kind of leadership is a tragedy for those who care about the environment while respecting human freedom. But, it is a potent political reality that must be reckoned with. Their will-to-power is nothing if not tenacious, and patient, persistent opposition is needed now more than ever.